Miba reports sales increasing as it invests in future technology
April 27, 2022
Miba AG, Laakirchen, Austria, has reported its results for the 2021/22 financial year, seeing annual sales increase by €80 million (9%) to €971 million – returning to the level seen before the start of the pandemic.
All business segments are reported to have grown, with the strongest growth, around 30%, achieved by the friction materials segment, which at €220 million contributes almost 25% to Miba’s total sales. Miba’s Power Electronics Group grew by about a quarter to annual sales of almost €70 million and Miba’s Sinter and Bearing divisions were also able to expand their business compared to the previous year.
“The growth driver in the past fiscal year was once again our clear claim that Miba technologies contribute to greater energy efficiency as an important basis for sustainability and climate protection,” stated F Peter Mitterbauer, CEO of Miba.
“11% of our sales already come from products for clean energy generation and transmission – driven strongly by our growth with technologies for wind energy, hydropower and for efficient power grids,” he continued. “For example, Miba offers a broad product portfolio for wind turbines and thus experienced unprecedented market demand last year. The same applies to our business with components for energy-efficient agricultural and construction machinery. And we are also utilising many opportunities around electrification and are growing – with our battery systems and battery technologies as well as with our broad product range for drives in electric vehicles.”
Miba aims to grow by 50% by 2027 with products for greater efficiency and sustainability along the entire energy value chain. Contributing to greater energy efficiency with Miba products in such a wide variety of end applications is at the heart of the ‘Miba 100’ growth strategy. It was presented in spring 2021 and describes how the company intends to grow by 50% by the 100th anniversary of its founding in 2027 – to annual sales of €1.5 billion.
In order to take advantage of these growth opportunities, Miba once again invested strongly in the future of the company and its employees in the past fiscal year, spending €85 million. With more than €40 million spent on research and development – which corresponds to a high R&D ratio of 4.2% – Miba placed a strong focus on its innovative strength in its usual manner. The company holds more than 400 patents; in the previous year alone, sixty-four new ones were added according to an evaluation by the Austrian Patent Office.
Miba began early to build up an extensive product portfolio for electrification – components for electric motors and electric drives, battery systems and battery components such as cooling technology, power electronics or fuse systems. Many of these products are now in series production or are about to be.
Miba has already invested €60 million in building up its eMobility business, including new production facilities for power resistors in eVehicles commissioned in Styria in the past fiscal year. In Vorchdorf, the Miba eMobility team will shortly move into a new production and office site. The battery system specialist Voltlabor, in which Miba holds a stake, is also building Austria’s technologically leading battery production plant in Bad Leonfelden in Upper Austria.
“We see great opportunities not only in the automotive industry, which is expected to grow strongly again in the medium term following the current challenges in the supply chains. Municipal and commercial vehicles, motorcycles and boats or forklifts in production are also increasingly being electrified,” concluded Mitterbauer.
